This invention relates to fiber optic telecommunication systems and in particular to delay equalization for single mode optical fibers.
A desirable feature of high bandwidth, long haul, optical transmission systems is an overall wavelength independent delay between a source and a detector, whereby the arrival time at the output of a fiber of a pulse launched into it would be independent of the wavelength of the source. However, owing to the effects of material and waveguide dispersion in single mode fibers, the delay of pulses launched into the fiber varies with the wavelength of the source, except for a narrow wavelength range at which the delay is a minimum. Since it is often not practical to construct a single mode fiber for use at the zero dispersion point, that is in the narrow wavelength range, the result is a residual wavelength dependent delay over the spectral range of the source used. It is thus desirable to be able to equalize the delay in these cases.